Church Archives Release Documents on Dvd Elder
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SUNSTONE UPDATE CHURCH ARCHIVES RELEASE fear the set will quickly disappear from the market, never to be DOCUMENTS ON DVD seen again. However, even the most hardened skeptics welcome the re- IN ASSOCIATION WITH BYU Studies lease and the ability it gives to do in-depth research at home. and BYU Press, the Church’s Family and Church History department has ELDER NELSON: GOD’S LOVE just released more than 400,000 doc- NOT UNCONDITIONAL uments from LDS archives. Priced at $1,299, this massive collection com- AN ENSIGN ARTICLE by Elder Russell prises two volumes for a total of 74 M. Nelson, rebutting the notion that DVDs. (DVDs can hold more than 4 gi- God’s love is unconditional, has gabytes of information—8 times the sparked animated discussion on LDS amount of a traditional CD-ROM.) 54 email lists. “God’s love cannot correctly DVDs, the bulk of the material, com- be characterized as unconditional,” prise the “Church Historian’s Office, says Elder Nelson in the February 2002 History of the Church, 1839–circa1882,” the Church magazine. “Understanding that divine Historian’s Office Journal, 1844–1879, and the Journal History love and blessings are not truly uncon- of the Church. The remaining discs contain diaries, letters, and ditional can defend us against common other documents from various Church leaders and prominent fallacies such as these: ‘Since God’s love early Latter-day Saints. A Joseph Smith collection, for example, is unconditional, He will love me re- totals more than 4,000 pages. Also included are the Brigham gardless. .’ These arguments are used Elder Russell M. Nelson Young letterpress books, diaries and correspondence of Joseph by anti-Christs to woo people with deception.” F. Smith, journals and letters of Lorenzo Snow, papers of This article puts the seal of approval on a doctrinal position George A. Smith, and diaries of J. Golden Kimball. quietly debated for some time now. SUNSTONE has learned The collection contains high-resolution scans, not type- that the question of whether God’s love is unconditional was scripts or text. So researchers will still need to search page by discussed by the Church’s correlation committee some five page, as they would at an archive. But pages can be enlarged. years ago and submitted to the First Presidency and the They can also be saved as separate files and opened in com- Quorum of the Twelve for direction. The highest governing puter-imaging programs where brightness and contrast can be bodies in the Church replied that God’s love is not uncondi- adjusted. tional, and the expression “God’s unconditional love” has since As with many historical archives, material deemed confi- been eliminated from all official publications. dential or inappropriate for public use is blacked out. Such in- BYU religion professor Joseph Fielding McConkie has op- stances are rare, however, and the collection claims there are posed the term “unconditional love” since the 1980s. “The no silent omissions—readers will always see a black cover over phrase itself is entirely unscriptural,” stated McConkie in June the censored portion to show where material has been 1987. “When I have asked people who teach this so-called omitted. Preservationists can also doctrine how they distinguish God’s ‘unconditional love’ from rest assured the original docu- salvation by grace as taught in the Protestant world, they have ments have not been altered. been unable to do so” (A Scriptural Search for the Ten Tribes and While most have hailed the re- Other Things We Lost [Brigham Young University, 1987], 7). lease of this collection as un- Best-selling LDS author Stephen E. Robinson also has ques- precedented and phenomenal, tioned the expression, but only in one meaning. “God’s love some have expressed concern. (understood as his desire for us) is unconditional,” wrote One issue raised is that of copy- Robinson in 1995. “God’s love (understood as his relationship right. Some believe the Church with us) is conditioned upon our positive response to his rushed to release this set by the wooing of us” (Following Christ [Deseret Book, 1995], 150). end of 2002 in order to secure Mormon feminist Janice Allred, whose book God the Mother future publishing rights to docu- [Signature Books, 1997] describes God’s love as unconditional, ments that, because of a change finds Elder Nelson’s article troubling. “Not only does Elder in publishing law, were about to Nelson fail to communicate the message of God’s love, but he lose copyright protection. also displays a lack of scholarship in his article,” says Allred. “It Others object to the price, seems less like he is attempting to understand what the scrip- complaining the Church is trying tures say about God’s love than he is trying to promote an to keep the collection out of the agenda of authoritarianism and conditional love: You are loved A blacked out entry from hands of most people. They also J. Golden Kimball’s diary and blessed only if you obey the rules unquestioningly.” PAGE 72 MARCH 2003 SUNSTONE STATEMENTS FROM AN ERA NOW GONE? At this Christmas season Godliness characterizes [Christ’s] duties have Faith [in the Lord’s will] Charity develops in us as we reach out to all in a each of you who truly long been galactic, yet turns us toward the we see ourselves moving spirit of love and recon- loves the Lord. You are He noticed the widow Savior, his life, and his in our lives from a ciliation, even to those constantly mindful of the casting in her mite. I am unconditional love for ‘what’s in it for me’ kind who speak evil against Savior’s atonement and stunned at His perfect, us. of love to the love of us . In moments of rejoice in His uncondi- unconditional love of all. family and friends and, quiet, we reflect upon tional love. JOSEPH B. WIRTHLIN blessedly, beyond that to [Christ’s] matchless life NEAL A. MAXWELL Finding Peace in Our Lives an awareness of our and His unconditional RUSSELL M. NELSON Even As I Am Deseret Book, 1995, Lord’s unconditional love love for each of us. Ensign, Nov. 1991 Deseret Book, 1982, p. 177 for us that tells us of our p. 61 p. 115 divine kinship with one GORDON B. HINCKLEY another and with him. LDS Church News, AILEEN H. CLYDE 11 Dec. 1993, p. 4 Ensign, Nov. 1994 “unconditional love” p. 94 INTERNATIONAL LEADERS WON’T David Burton expresses optimism about a recent proposal by ATTEND GENERAL CONFERENCE mayor Rocky Anderson: “While some details are still to be worked out,” reads the statement, “the Church will support FOR THE FIRST time since they were organized as such, Area the key elements of the proposal when it is formally submitted Presidencies and Area Authority Seventies living outside the for public discussion. The Church urges the fullest possible U.S. won’t be attending the April General Conference. In a public discussion of the proposal and remains optimistic con- veiled reference to the seemingly inevitable U.S.-led war with cerning its outcome.” Iraq, Church spokesman Dale Bills said the decision “will avoid As reported in the December 2002 SUNSTONE, under the problems caused by potential uncertainties.” In lieu of their plan, the city would give the Church the easement over the gathering in Salt Lake City, traditional conference week training two acres of disputed land the plaza sits on and allow the sessions for the area leaders will be facilitated via satellite and Church to invoke behavior and speech restrictions. In ex- DVD technology. change, the Church would donate a two-acre lot on Salt Lake City’s west side and help raise funds for a youth facility to be SATELLITE BROADCAST CELEBRATES built on the lot. As it stands today, the Planning Commission PRIMARY ANNIVERSARY will consider the proposal 9 April, and a vote by the City Council could come in late April or May. IN ANOTHER CHURCH first, tens of thousands of children The proposal is co-sponsored by the Alliance for Unity, gathered in stake centers in the U.S. and other countries to which includes a number of business, religious, and commu- hear President Gordon B. Hinckley speak in an event espe- nity leaders. Despite the consensus, some observers predict cially tailored just for them. Broadcast 8 February 2003 from further legal trouble for the city, as the decision could violate the Church’s Conference Center, the meeting celebrated the the separation between church and state. According to City 125th anniversary of the Primary. Attorney Ed Rutan, the American Civil Liberties Union could “You have an earthly father,” said President Hinckley, “but still sue the city on the grounds that the plaza is built on a tra- you [also] have your Father in heaven. It is just as important to ditionally free speech space. love and obey your Father in heaven as it is to love and obey your earthly father.” MARTIN’S COVE: CHURCH SAYS NO LEASE Organized 25 August 1878, in Farmington, Utah, the Primary helps teach nearly a million LDS children worldwide. FIVE YEARS AFTER the Church first attempted to buy a Mormon historical site in central Wyoming, negotiations CHURCH ENDORSES NEW PLAN FOR between Church leaders and the Bureau of Land PLAZA ON TEMPLE SQUARE Management (BLM) over Martin’s Cove continue to stall. LDS leaders recently raised objections to a lease draft offered by CITY OFFICIALS AND LDS leaders are making cautious the federal government. Without dismissing completely the moves toward an acceptable solution to the controversy in- possibility of a lease, the Church reiterated its intent to buy volving control over the Church’s Main Street Plaza.